A Police Response to a Crisis

 

A Police Response to a Crisis

            I grew up with music that depicted police in a negative light. I saw Rodney King get beaten by the police and that image shaped my idea of what policemen were like. Being against the police was in the music scene. I was a part of that scene. I was your standard middle class kid that thought I understood how the world worked. In reality, I had never interacted with the police in any way.

            Later in my life, after I had been diagnosed with a severe mental illness, I had my first authentic experience with police officers. This was not the negative experience I had stereotypically stored away in my brain, but what follows is my own experience with the police when my parents had to call 911 for help in dealing with my mental illness. The police were called to help my parents.

            Police first responders were called to the suburbs outside of Richmond, Virginia, because I, a recently discharged veteran who was not sure what help looked like, was a threat to my parents. I did everything the police told me to do, and the police treated me respectfully and professionally. I was handcuffed, not ridiculed or harmed anyway, and felt whatever chaos was going on in my mind would be treated. Those officers spoke to me in gentle tones and even laughed at one of my jokes--not the treatment that the news portrays or what we often read in the newspapers. Instead, we read or hear of a mentally ill person barricading himself inside a house as a SWAT team is called to manage the situation. These situations often end in violence or even death.

            My experience with a specially trained first responders’ team who had received training to deescalate a mental health crisis put me on the road to recovery, and fortunately, I got the help I needed. I sometimes wish I could go back to the suburbs of Richmond, Virginia to thank the police that helped me out that day. They set me on a path that has brought me to a place of advocacy for those who are diagnosed with mental illness. I remember at that time, feeling relief, that I was not in danger from the police, but they were there to give me and my parents help.

            The best thing I can do to thank those officers is talk to local police in my neighborhood now. I share experience with crisis intervention. My mom and I talk to the local police through NAMI.

            NAMI is a great organization to find care and learn about a loved one’s mental illness. Through NAMI we can encourage those local officers that even if they show up on a family’s worse day recovery and success are possible. Now I realize first responders have a very tough job, because they do not know who made the call or who they will meet at the scene. It could be anything or anyone, putting their lives in danger.

            Today I went to my veteran’s hospital two blocks from my apartment in my wonderful community. As I was leaving, I noticed a police officer by the front door. With my experience with the police, I try to wave and give them a thumbs up when I see them in my neighborhood, but on this particular day, I thanked that police officer for his service, and he acknowledged my compliment.

            As I was walking to my car, the same policeman came alongside me in his police car.

            “You gave that talk to us guys through NAMI.”

            I was not expecting anything like that. He did not have to stop.

            “How did I do?” I asked thinking he would just chuckle and drive away.

            “You did good.” He did not have to say that. It made my day, and I had to tell my mom when I got home.

            I am glad that today, I have no fear of police, and I have been given opportunities to share with them, especially Crisis Intervention Teams, my experience with them. The idea that every policeman is bad is profoundly wrong. By sharing my experience, I let them know how important their work is. Not every person who is trying to navigate a mental illness is ready to accept help, but police who are skillfully trained to how to respond to a mental health crisis invite the person to take the first step to recovery.

                

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